


Strange psionics

by Hopeful_monster



Series: Choose your own adventure [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2020-05-18 07:09:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19329616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopeful_monster/pseuds/Hopeful_monster
Summary: Max was just an ordinary girl and was largely oblivious to Advent's true motives and operating procedure, until a clash between their forces and resistance fighters triggers strange powers within her, drawing her into the conflict for humanity's right to exist.





	1. Chapter 1

Maxine Caulfield woke with a start, the dream of storms, so vivid a few seconds ago now started to fade. Her heart took a little longer to return to its normal rate as she stared out the window of the maglev train taking her to the founders day festivities. Kirsten and Fernandez were too interested in each other to have noticed her minor disquiet, not that she could blame them. After three years of dancing around the issue they had finally hooked up, so they were making up for lost time.  

 

Max decided to stare out the window instead of watching the mildly nauseating display in front of her. The pre Advent houses, with their bolted on Advent technology, had given way to the newer buildings of New Seattle but despite the gleaming towers in the distance and Advents promises the train still passed through areas that could only be described as slums. Max quietly wondered if was another holdover from ‘the old days’, as The Speaker described them, as the violent ways that necessitated the huge peacekeeping presence on the streets. The number of troops and hardware seemed like overkill for the unveiling of a statue commemorating unification day even given the recent attack on the Gene Therapy Clinic in Paris.  

 

Her thoughts were dragged back to the present by the announcement that their stop was coming up, so the three grabbed their stuff and shuffled their way to the doors, tapping this ID cards off as they left. Once out on the platform, they braced themselves cold spring air and moved down to the street passing a holographic advertisement for Advent Burger which switched to a peacekeeper message asking for information on wanted terrorists, showing mug shots and security footage of the people in question. As one popped up Fernandez grimaced, “By the Elders, what a horrendous pornstache.”  

 

“Yeah it’s a crime against humanity,” Kirsten added. despite never having watched porn, Max giggled a bit, as the tv was full of comedies mocking the past. Whether it was corrupt politicians, shortsighted corporations, or even just the terrible fashions (who ever thought mullets were a good idea deserved ‘reeducation’), all were fair game for media to show how much better humanity was under Advent. Given that the amount of pre-Advent media was limited, and probably very tightly controlled on the net, she wondered how much was true.  

 

Once down on the street, Max walked ahead of the couple, giving the impression she wanted to find a good spot to watch the unveiling, but really to get away from the incessant sweet nothings. She didn’t hold it against them, they were young and in love, but she also really didn’t want to watch it. As she made good time to the park, she grabbed a taco and started walking around looking for a good spot, not that the place was crowded with only a few people milling around the stage. As she wandered over she noticed something flutter around the flowers by the water feature.  

 

Approaching slowly she saw it, a brilliant blue butterfly now resting on one of the regimented rows of flowers. Instinctively she reached down and brought up her camera, framing the butterfly against both the regimented rows of flowers and the water feature which was reflecting the city lights. After slowly breathing out she held her breath a moment and squeezed the button capturing the moment forevermore but as soon as she did the insect fluttered back into the air away from her.  

 

At first, Max thought it was her shot that frightened off the butterfly, but as she zoned back into the world he heard her friends calling her from the park’s entrance. As she turned and waved to them she noticed a commotion was going on behind them as well, though she could quite see what. She found out as her friends sprang apart to let four oddly dressed people barrel through where they were. The two men were dressed in what appeared to be pre Advent military dress, tan camouflage with some kind of body armour, while the first woman wore body armour over her torso, she only had on some tiny shorts that accentuated her long legs. The final woman gave no impression of any form of military dress or decorum,  wearing a sports bra under a leather bikers vest, crudely cut down trousers, and topped it off with a full sleeve tattoo on her right arm as well as a bright blue Mohawk. She looked like a ‘disruptive element’ even before you took into account the large gun she was carrying. That they were all carrying.  

 

If this didn’t concern Max enough, the shouts in the Advent language would have. While no one actually knew what they were saying, the peacekeepers meaning was always clear. And in this case, they were commanding the runners to stop. They did not, instead, they began to split up, allowing Max to see that Kirsten and Fernandez holding hands as they watched the quartet run away from them. That was how she wanted to remember them, happy and together, not the broken mess on the floor they were a heartbeat later after the peacekeepers had opened fire.  

 

She huddled behind a tree planter and used her phone as a periscope to watch for danger while keeping out of it. She glanced across the path and saw one of the dissidents, a slightly overweight Hispanic guy, reach for his belt and then pull his arm back to throw what she guessed was a grenade. She found out she was correct as it fell from his hand after his body was punctured by half a dozen blasts from the Peacekeepers’ rifles then exploded.  

 

She must have lost consciousness after that because she didn’t remember how she got on the floor half a metre away. She scrambled as best she could into cover again and using her now cracked phone she kept an eye one the battle. The two sides traded fire with seemingly little effect until another squad of three Peacekeepers hit the insurgents flank.  

 

The long-legged brunette tried to reposition, vaulting over a bench with her legs almost horizontal which reminder Max of the cheerleaders of old. After making it to the other side she dashed towards the cover of a piece of modern sculpture but was cut down by a hail of red fire from the Advent forces. What made it worse for Max was hearing her final words from the small two-way radio that had come off the Hispanic guy and landed next to her.  

 

The punk and pornstache managed to take down one of the troopers before the red trooper got threw a grenade of his own, which stripped pornstache of his cover and the rest of the peacekeepers fired, sealing his fate. The punk let out a cry filled with rage and loss before going full auto, spraying a tight cone of fire at the Advent forces, downing a few of them and winging the rest. However, it was not enough, as some of the remaining troops kept up suppressing fire while the rest flanked her, taking her down but not out. The red one strode out to the wounded terrorist and after saying something Max didn’t catch shot the punk in the face.  

 

It was only then that Max was noticed. Guns were pointed in her direction and orders barked. The two main ones were to put her hands up and emerge from her hiding place. Max instantly complied, hands shooting into the air as she unsteady got to her feet. Most of the peacekeepers relaxed but kept their guns on her, but Big Red spotted her phone and demanded she stop recording. Max stopped, puzzled, and looked up to see she had accidentally hit record and filmed the entire thing. The order was repeated, and Max lowered her hands to comply but was immediately ordered to raise her hands again.  

 

Max froze, unsure which order took priority, and tried to speak but the contrary orders were barked with the unspoken ‘or else’ loud and clear. She looked at them hopelessly, trying to tell them using only facial expressions that she didn’t know what to do. Seconds passed like aeons as the guns pointed at her didn’t waver, staying locked on to her as she stayed as still as she could. Suddenly the tense stillness of the scene was disturbed by a jaunty tune emanated from her phone. This must have made one of the troops squeeze their trigger, as Max saw one of the guns glow with an ominous red light before the first of the bolts began its deadly journey towards her.  

Max had no idea why she dropped her hand, to tell the trooper to stop, to ward off the blow, but as she did it was covered in a purplish glow and reality twisted. The bolt hung in the air and then reversed back into the gun, the troopers made unnatural jerky motions, lowering their guns then drifting off backwards. The battle restarted in reverse, and all the time the rewind speed up and all the while the ambient light got brighter until in a blinding flash she was back on the floor after the explosion.  

 

A little dazed and hugely confused she stuck her head up to see the battle replaying itself. The unfruitful trade of fire, then the Advent reinforcements, Cheerleader trying to move and getting cut down. Her final words, head over the radio snapped Max out of her passive stupor, reaching out again, as she had done before she had been shot at, she felt the ‘twist’ happened again but a bit more controlled this time. She saw the Cheerleader fall up and the bolts fly out of her as she raced back to her starting location.  

 

Swearing not to let that happen again, she grabbed the radio and spoke into it. “Cheerleader, there are three Advent soldiers coming in on your left.”  

 

Max saw the insurgent she dubbed cheerleader, cock her head puzzled by the message or the stranger giving her information. It, however, had the desired effect, as she noticed them quicker than she had before and began her jump over the bench earlier. Unfortunately, history repeated itself and as soon as she was over she was stitched with fire. Rewinding again until just after she’d cleared the bench she shouted into the radio “Get down, NOW!”  

 

The long-legged brunette dropped like she’d been shot, but the red bolts passed over her head leaving her unscathed.  Max though dull thump in her head was worth it. Turning her attention to the whole battle now she noticed Big Red now a little more cautious, but still readying a grenade. The Punk shot at him, but too high and too the right, so after a quick reversal she said, “Punk, down and to the left.”  

 

She obviously listened as her shots slammed right into his faceplate and he fell without a noise. Pornstache got winged by a stray shot after Cheerleader evened the numbers, but after she went back to warn him, using her nickname for him, the other two rebels burst out laughing. Things continued to go well for the three and Max only had to redo a lucky shot from the last Advent trooper which punched through Punk's skull.  

 

Once the last of the Advent Forces fell the pounding in Max’s head had spilt out her nose in the form of a small but steady trickle of blood. The motley crew of ‘terrorists’ moved over to her and the remains of their brother in arms carefully, keeping to cover and watching for more Advent to come charging into the park. Pornstache was in the lead and came right up to her, his motions purposefully but obviously designed to make it look like he was in charge. “I don’t know who you are, missy, but I don’t appreciate you giving commands to my men.”  

 

“Women.” Cheerleader said, kneeling beside the remains of her comrades. This checked Pornstache, his oncoming tirade replaced by a confused grunt. Cheerleader looked up and clarified, “we’re women, not men, in case you hadn’t noticed these.”  

 

The slight colouring of his cheeks as she cupped her boobs indicated that he noticed, even if he turned away from the demonstration. She continued, “ Why are you busting her chops anyway? Things would have gone sideways without her, so chill.”  

 

Max was glad that Cheerleader was on her side, and that no one mentioned her flush at the show, but still felt like her head was three sizes too small. The punk, who had been fiddling at the base of the statue, came on over and announced, “Charges are set, we’ve got… Max?”  

 

Max managed to focus on the Punk long enough for a memory to flicker and said, “Chloe?” before the encroaching darkness claimed her. Not even the deafening sound of the explosion roused her.  

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have a winner.

Max regained consciousness to the sound of an argument. The voices were vaguely familiar, but as thinking skill were still booting up and her memory was still seemingly offline she let it wash over her until something sparked to life in her aching head. She gleamed bits as the debate when on, firstly that one of the arguers was female, the other male and they had taken something they shouldn’t have. Despite the harsh tones being used, there was something about the woman’s voice that made Max feel much better, like a long term niggling irritation finally soothed. 

As she listened to the woman’s voice, the parts of Max’s brain that recognised words gradually ground into gear and she was able to understand what was being said, “She saved our sorry asses, so I say she can stay. Besides I’ve known her for longer than I’ve had the misfortune of knowing you, she’s good people.” 

The man’s harsh voice responded dismissively, “Good people don’t live in the cities controlled by Advent, they fight them. You’ve not seen her in 5 years, she could have become an X-ray lover in that time. I don’t trust her and I don’t want you near her.” 

There was a snort from the woman followed by, “Who died and left you in charge?” 

Chloe! That was the feminine voice. Max managed to crack her eyes open to see her old friend, face to face with an older, moustached man. Both were glaring at each other, with only inches separating them, however, as Chloe finished her sentence he looked away’, pain overwhelming his anger. In the most subdued voice she had heard from him, he said “Your mother.” 

Chloe reeled back as if she had been slapped. Even with her blurred vision max could see tears glistening in Chloe’s eyes, and pain lanced through Max’s heart, for Chloe’s loss as well as her own. Chloe, however, stood still for a moment before bolting out the room like it was on fire. Max reached out to her fleeing form and managed a weak, “Chloe.” 

Then it happened again, the purplish tinged filter on the world, the pull in her mind, and the everything going backwards. The dull throbbing in her head also returned, but not as painful as it was in the park. Still, she only held on to the rewind for a few seconds and as she released it she heard the man repeat, “X-ray lover in that time. I don’t trust her and I don’t want you near her.”

“Chloe?” Max, repeated weakly for the first time in this timeline. Both the people standing next to her bed looked down at her a little surprised to see her awake. Chloe recovered first and in a scathing voice said, “Yeah, cause she’s such a threat.” 

 

\--//--

 

Chloe changed Her tone a little and sat next to her bedridden friend, “Hey Max, welcome back to the land of the living.” 

Though she still looked pale, she looked a lot better. Mind you most people looked better without a river of blood and snot dripping out of their nose. Or if they are conscious. However, Chloe was surprised at how little her friend had changed over the years, the ponytail which replaced by a wavy mass of hair being the biggest change. She sat up carefully before looking around and half a dozen half-formed questions spilt from her mouth. A glance to my step douche got a “Who…?”  
A panicked glance around got a “Where…?” A nervous glance under the sheets got another “Where?” Chloe wasn’t sure what prompted the “Why” and the “What” could have referred to a dozen things, but by this time the small brunette was working herself into quite a panicked state. 

After a few more garbled sounds she hung her head and in a small voiced asked, “Can I have dome water?” 

Chloe almost burst into laughter, Max really hadn’t changed much in all those years. She grabbed the glass from the bedside table and proffered it to her. Max took it cautiously and started sipping, but after she had had a few began drinking in earnest. Taking long gulps which spilt down onto her top. Damn the girl’s thirsty. 

The spillage began to reveal slightly more than David felt comfortable seeing, Chloe guessed by his study of the ceiling, but Chloe really mind. Not long after Max had finished the glass, and turned a worried gaze to both the people looming over her bed. “Better now, or do you want to continue this wet t-shirt contest?” 

Max looked down then turned beet red as she saw what was on display. Quickly gathering up the blankets and covering up before turning away in embarrassment. However now she was decent, Chloe’s step dick-tator jumped on the chance to interrogate the freckles waif. “Now missy, what were you doing in the park?” 

If the sudden change in both the tone and direction of the conversation didn’t startle Max, the accusatory finger in her face did because it startled Chloe as it shot past her. After a second or two though the response came out, ”Errh, I was taking a picture of a butterfly. ” 

Whatever David thought she was going to say, this was clearly not it judging by the baffled look on his face. Chloe, however, while not expecting this exact response wasn’t surprised by the honestly but random nature of it. Davids bafflement gave way to his more usual angry paranoia, “ Now listen, missy, I want to know everything you did in that park.” 

Max looked a little panicked At the outburst, and started blathering, “I went to the park to get some shots for a class assignment, and when I was there I got a taco from the truck by the entrance. While I was eating it I saw this weird butterfly by the pools. I took a photo of it because I’d never seen one like it. It flew off and then I turned to see… Kirsten…and…. Fern…” 

Max’s speech slowed after the first sentence before grinding to a halt as she remembered what had happened to her friends. By the time she stopped speaking, she had the thousand-yard stare that both Chloe and David knew far too well. Tears glistened for a moment before trickling down the brunette’s face. Chloe was glad her stepfather was not such a huge arsehole to try and continue his interrogation, especially once Max had latched on to Chloe and just wept. 

It took Max several minutes to cry herself out, by which time David had left, and longer still to be able to hold any form of conversation. Once she had calmed a bit Chloe got Max to talk a bit about her friends as, while she was by no means an expert, she had unfortunately had a lot of experience helping people grieve as most of the inhabitants of the Blackwell sanctuary had lost someone to Advent. Max told her about how they had been the only ones at school who’d talk to the shy kid from Outside the city, their trip to the Freemont troll were the pair got so wasted they thought it was going to eat them and when they finally got together after years of both failing to spot the signs of mutual attraction. After Max located her phone she showed Chloe photos of the pair. 

Sitting so close together, looking at the small screen together, Chloe felt more at peace than she had in years. It might have been due to the fact that not everything she had lost had gone forever, or that she was reliving a small piece of her childhood or she was taking solace by you sitting next to a cute girl. This lasted until she heard sniffing next to her. fearing another deluge of tears the blunette turned quickly, only to see her childhood friend sniffing her armpits. 

“Dog I stink.” Chloe hadn’t noticed, but decided to say instead, “Yeah I’ve known that since Bobby G farted on you back in 2nd grade.” 

“Ugh, Chloe are you cereal? That was like 10 years ago. Can’t you let it go.” Despite the pouting tone, there was a hint of a smile on the blushing face. “Where can I freshen up?” 

Chloe indicated a door at the other end of the room which Max quickly disappeared through after wrapping a blanket around herself, leaving Chloe with her unlocked phone and a mischievous grin on the older girl’s face. 

 

\--//--

After Max had received herself, she looked at herself in the mirror trying to wrap her head around what had happened. She was ambivalent in the truest sense of the word. The sadness of at the lost of Kirsten and Fernandez conflicted with joy she felt at being reunited with Chloe. The peace after the terror in the park contradicted the utter confusion of her new abilities. 

She splashed some water on her face and grabbed a face cloth to try and give herself a bit of a sponge bath, resolving to ask Chloe were a real shower and change of clothes could be found. On hearing nothing from Chloe she reached inside her t-shirt to give her armpits a wipe when Chloe burst into the room. “What the actual fuck is this?” 

As she asked she thrust Max’s phone into her face. Surprised by the sudden intrusion to took the brunette a few seconds to focus and responded in an unsure tone, “Umm, my phone?” 

“No, well yeah, but what the fuck is it showing? This is hardcore, I mean it looks like a game or anime but I’m fucking in it. I got my best friend back and she’s got hella superpowers.” 

Chloe’s joy and exuberance, however, was not shared by Max. Her heart rate, which had returned to normal after the surprises since walking up reached hummingbird speeds again, blood drained from her face , whose voice was rushed, high pitched and panicked, “I don’t know what I’ve got, but ever since we all got shot I’ve found I can reverse time and I’m scared shitless.”

The only reason Max was still standing was the death grip she had on Chloe. “This isn’t a game or anime. people can’t do this, I shouldn’t be able to do it, but seeing you all die, seeing the bolt, I had to do something, but … I couldn’t have…”

“Breath Max, breath. I’m here and we’ll get through this together.” Chloe wrapped her into a hug, partly to make it easier for the taller girl to hold up the brunette as she gulped air down between sobs, but also to try and calm her down. As Chloe rubbed small circles into Max’s back she felt calmer, more human even though she wasn’t sure if she was one anymore. 

Chloe lead them back to the bed and sat them down and nervously said, “Max, when you’re okay, tell me everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in publishing this, internet died for one weekend and unexpected visitors the next. I also have been planning the rest of the series, and even come up with a sequel. I will probably drop random chapters for the other works in 'Choose your own adventure', but will focus on this one.


	3. Chapter 3

Max didn’t want to be here. There were dozens of reasons the most obvious being the spring that jabbed in her back every time the dilapidated truck went over a bump and given the number of them on the dirt road they were travelling on she felt it wouldn’t be long before the spring skewered her from back to front. Then there was David “Pornstache” Madsen, Chloe’s stepfather, who was sitting opposite her and had been glaring at her since they’d met. It was partly her fault, as she was the one who had first called him by his new nickname, but he also seemingly mistrusted anyone who had lived in an Advent city, or that he hadn’t known for a couple of years, no make that decades, or had ‘bleed on the battlefield’ with him. His glare was so fierce that she completely missed the venomous glances from one of the other passengers, a young man by the name of Elliot.

 

Max shifted slightly, trying to move away from the spring, only to brush against Kate, the team medic. A few years older than Max, she had been forced to flee after her family had loudly protested the growing worship of the Elders as gods only to be attacked as ‘blasphemers’ by the ‘new gods’ followers. Max smiled at her, hoping the nervousness she felt didn’t show but given the tension in the returned smile she mustn’t have hidden it that well.

 

The truck began to slow down jolting Max from her thoughts and the dozen or so occupants of the truck began gathering their weapons and other supplies before checking them and disembarking. Max ran through her checks as well as she could remember them. Deciding that having her gun, ammo, a solitary grenade (that looked older than her), and her meagre armour was enough, so she jumped out of the back of the truck.

 

Once she got out she saw David prowling about, snapping at people to get things ready for the ambush and Chloe leaning casually against a beat-up truck with a bored look that belittled its contents. Namely several bags of high explosives. She waved and Chloe pushed herself off and started walking towards her, but had made it no more than a few steps before David’s harsh voice disturbed the relative quiet of the gathering. “Missy, were’s your sidearm?”

 

Max’s mind raced, ‘what’s a sidearm, did I get one, where did I leave it?’ before seeing the group’s leader looming over Kate. The medic began patting herself down as she tried to locate the gun before starting to empty her medical supplies as the moustached man loomed over her chewing her out. The young woman who had helped her settle into life at the camp, who she had shared a pot of tea with and bitched about life, who had helped her find underwear in her size was being bullied by the man who had made Max’s own life unpleasant. That would not do.

 

It took her a few attempts but Max managed to ‘liberate’, as Chloe would put it, Pornstache’s pistol from its holster, rewind, then slip it into Kate’s bag before she ‘found’ it. The look of relief on the small blonde’ face was worth the mild headache using her powers gave Max. David, however, was not satisfied with … well anything really, but in this case how long it took Kate to find her gun, ending his tirade with, “every soldier should know where their weapons are.”

 

With the confidence born only of her ability to rewind time, Max managed to say, “Oh, yeah? Where’s your pistol?”

 

“It’s right …” David started confidently, his hand reaching to his hip with practised ease, but his face dropped as he found nothing in his holster. After visually checking what his hand felt he started looking around suspiciously and once his eyes landed on Max they narrowed. He had correctly guessed that she had taken it, but obviously had no idea how she had managed to do it. He made one statement before stalking off, “I’ll remember this.”

 

Once David had moved off kate wrapped the small brunette in a crushing hug, “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don’t know why he was being so mean but thank you for getting him to back off.”

 

“He was being mean because he is an arsehole, but good old Super-Max was there to swoop in and save the day,” Chloe said as she made it over them. “Becoming a habit for you, right.”

 

“I try and help out when I can.” Max said, “Do you know where your gun really is?”

 

Kate looked away shyly, before quietly admitting, “I left it back at Arcadia Haven, I came along to heal, not harm.”

 

“A noble sentiment,” Chloe said, “but step dildo doesn’t really get noble. Tell you what hand over your gun.”

 

Kate gingerly handed over the pistol and Chloe pushed a lever on its side, sliding out the magazine and then tossing it into Kate’s half-empty bag of medical supplies. “There, now you can keep Sergeant Pepper happy and not compromise your ideals.”

 

Kate gushed thanks as she started to repack her bag, and Max and Chloe moved off. Chloe nudged the brunette and asked “Max you…?” as she waggled her fingers and eyebrows. Max looked around before nodding. The grin that erupted on Chloe’s face helped ease Max’s headache, “that’s hella awesome. How’d you do it?”

 

Despite Chloe’s infectious enthusiasm, Max kept her voice quiet when she responded. “Grabbed the gun off David and when I reversed time it stayed with me.”

 

“Cool, why didn’t you tell me about this when we were playing around at the shooting range?” Chloe half whined as she referred to their first and as yet only test of Max’s powers. It was also the reason max had been dragged along on this mission, as after Max had spotted for Chloe (helping her get a full magazine into the bullseye) Max had done the same for herself. The problem was that she had been observed by the camps ‘Mayor’, a man called Wells, who had insisted that Max when on the mission. Max reminded Chloe by saying “We were interrupted, remember? I didn’t want to say anything in front of Wells.”

 

“Meh, the old fart was probably too drunk to remember, hell Rachel accidentally mooned him once and he didn’t even notice.” While Max was glad Chloe had found such a good friend in her absence, she felt a little pang at the mention of Rachel’s name. She couldn’t articulate to herself, let anyone else, the cause of her discomfort beyond its correlation with that one word. Before she could ignore the word properly, Chloe had launched into a completely different tangent, “ But this opens up a hella huge amount of opportunities. You could be the best gentleman thief ever. Of course, I’ll be your accomplice and getaway driver.”

 

“Shouldn’t that be Lady thief? I don’t have the relevant parts to be a gentleman.” Max said, grateful that they had almost immediately fallen back into the same banter they had had when they were children, even after everything. Chloe’s response, however, was nothing like their childhood conversations, “I’ve got some things in my draws back at camp that can fill in for your lack of equipment if you want.”

 

Whatever she was or was not feeling was almost instantly replaced by a mix of shock, embarrassment and maybe the tiniest hint of curiosity. Possibly. Nevertheless, she felt her face glow red with all the blood flowing into it, and from the grin plastered on Chloe’s own face she was enjoying the smaller brunette’s discomfort. “You’re so cute when you’re embarrassed.”

 

Their conversation was interrupted by David’s instructions to the group, Dana ‘Cheerleader’ Ward was put in charge of guarding the right flank with two other fighters, David was leading the main body and, “Elliot, take the left flank with Chloe.”

 

Elliot looked like the cat that got both the cream and the dog kicked out of the house at the same time. He was smirking smugly at Max, who was still oblivious, until Chloe grabbed Max and said, “Come on my little, lucky Irish charm, we’ve got a flank to cover.”

 

Elliot’s expression now would have soured the cream the cat just got, but before he could say anything Kate raised her hand and asked, “ Excuse me, where should I go sir?”

 

David’s terse response was “Just stay out of my way. Elliot, over here solider.”

 

Elliot trotted over to the moustached older man like an eager puppy, Max asked, “Kate, do you want to come with us?”

 

“I’d love to if it wouldn’t be a bother,” Kate said hopefully, but obviously still nervous after her run-in with David. She even gave a little yelp when Chloe gave her a side hug and said, “Sure we’ll take you. All of us on step dildo’s shit list should stick together. Hey, that’s what we could call our group. ‘Pornstache’s Shit List’”

 

“No.” Elliot said as he returned, causing Chloe to give him a childish pout before another idea hit her and enthusiastically asked, “How about ‘Super hyper force monkey team go’?”

 

“No.” Elliot replied in an exasperated tone. Max smirked a little at Chloe’s suggestion, before giving her own, “Valkyries ?”

 

Elliot actually considered this one for a moment before asking, “Weren’t they all women?”

 

“Yes, they were.” Came the response from Kate and predictably Elliot then instantly rejected it with, “I’m not a girl!”

 

Chloe’s grin widened as she replied: “Are you sure?”

 

The indignation, obvious on his voice, crept across his face as he spluttered affirmation to his masculinity. Once he had calmed kate quietly gave her suggestion, “Nemesis.”

 

This gave everyone pause to think, Max, asking the question than most were pondering, “Isn’t that…”

 

“The Greek deity of divine retribution.” Kate finished with a bit more bite than normal. “In charge of punishing mortals who thought themselves above the gods.”

 

Everyone nodded slightly as they thought of how appropriate the name was. Even Elliot liked it, “Yeah, that’s good. ‘Team Nemesis’, well go with that. Always great to have a God on your side.”

 

“Goddess. She was a goddess,” Kate clarified. Elliot gave an exasperated look at kate, rolled his eyes, and sighed. “Come on everyone, let’s get moving.”

 

The group made its way to the left of the main group who were setting up the explosive-laden pickup to ram the Advent train. They made it a hundred or so meters away from the truck a then Elliot just kind of stopped and looked around expectantly.

 

Everyone else stopped with him and after a moment of exchanged looks between the women Max asked, “What are you doing?”

 

Elliot rolled his eyes and in a tone normally used to explain things to the terminally slow, “I’m guarding the left flank. Like we were ordered to. Solider.”

 

The attempt to imitate David came out like a child copying his father, and with the ill-fitting armour and the awkward way he carried his gun it was comical enough to make Chloe snigger. Max, however, shied away a bit but managed to say, “I don’t think standing out in the open is such a good idea. Maybe we should get in cover?”

 

Elliot looked at her blankly for a second or two, before glancing at where he was standing then saying, “I was wondering when one of you was going notice that.” 

 

It took a Herculean effort not to roll her eyes but Max managed it, however, judging by the scoff from Chloe and the groan from Kate she was not the only one who disbelieved Elliot’s honestly. 

 

“Let me guess, you were also waiting for one of us to spot that if we were up there,” Chloe said in a voice practically dripping with sarcasm while pointing up to the high ground a little further away from the rest of the group, “ we’d get better lines of sight and it’d be more difficult to sneak up on us.” 

 

“Errh, yes?” Elliot said, again completely failing to convince anyone. The loud explosion from behind them cut off any further comments except “let’s move.” 

 

The squad moved up the rise quickly, scrambling up the stepped terrain until the last section which required them to climb up a three-meter cliff to the top. Fortunately there were easy handholds flanking a fallen tree which Chloe and Max reached first. Chloe looked up the vertical face, then glanced sideways at Max and uttered a phrase not heard since their childhood, “Race ya.”

 

Once the challenge had been made Chloe dashed into the climb and rapidly gained the lead as her long legs and arms gave her another advantage over the less physically fit Max. By the time Max was halfway up Chloe was almost at the top, so she paused and raised her hand and threw time into reverse. Not for long but for long enough for her to catch up a bit, after a few more handholds she repeated it, hoping the shorter rewinds wouldn’t be as stressful and that it would look like she was making small leaps up the cliff face rather than altering the linear flow of time. A few more times and she was crawling over the top while Chloe was still a metre or so lower. 

 

Max was still leaning on an outcropping, out of breath when Chloe crested the cliff face and wheezed out a ‘cheater’ before hauling herself over the top and bending over to catch her own breath. After a few seconds panting she straightened and her head exploded. 

 

It wasn’t until the bolts of angry red energy came flying towards her that she was able to tear her eyes away from was once Chloe. She half-collapsed, half crouched behind the rock that separated her from the incoming fire and looked towards its source. Two, no three ‘Peacekeepers’, guns up, approaching from were the Advent shuttle had come from. She threw her hand up and rewound as fast and far as she could, only to come to an abrupt halt as it felt like her head was having spikes driven into it. 

 

Chloe was on the flat at the top but still panting, so Max cried out “Look out!” As loud as she could. To her credit, Chloe did even hesitate, throwing herself forward towards the cover a fallen tree a metre or so away. This had the effect of splitting the incoming fire and that which headed towards Max struck the outcropping so only flying fragments of rock hit her. Unfortunately, the shots that were aimed at Chloe were lethally accurate, with the only mercy being that she fell face down, sparing Max another glimpse of her friend’s insides.  Max returned again to the panting bluenette, with new and larger barbed spikes being driven behind her eye, and tried to grab Chloe and drag her behind the outcropping. As she lunged she must have started the panting woman as Chloe took a step back into the air. For less than a second, Max thought that it might help Chloe, but the cry of fear, followed by the crack and the terrible silence afterwards quelled that thought. 

 

As she looked over the edge and saw Chloe, her neck at an unnatural angle, Max almost wished the bolts would hit her. As she straightened and saw them fly towards her something lightly bounced off her hip. 

 

Her rifle. 

 

An idea came to her as quickly as the bolts did, but she hated the idea as much as the red hot death the bolts promised. However, unlike them, the idea did not slow, then stop, then return to its point of origin. Max doesn’t look at Chloe as she also returns to her place, instead she focuses on the troops in front of her. She doesn’t know if it’s here powers or the adrenaline coursing through her veins, but she lines up the shot in the centre of mass. After slowly breathing out she held her breath a moment and squeezed the trigger and the rifle recoiled. Without checking she turned to the next target and repeat the process. Then the final one.

 

\--//--

 

Chloe scrabbled over the lip of the cliff she was racing Max up only to see her standing at the top.

 

‘ _The cheating little…’_ was the first thought flash through her head before everything was drowned out by a burst of automatic fire right next to her head. “Jesus Max, what the fuck!” 

 

Chloe barely heard herself turn the air blue from the ringing in her ears and if there was any response it went unheard. She crawled up so her torso was on the flat ground and rolled over onto her back, “ Why did ya…?” 

 

Chloe stopped as she stared up at Max and the blank expression on her face, partially hidden by her gun. It was unsettling, so she followed the direction of Max’s gaze and gun to see three Advent troops lying slumped in the middle distance. ‘’Shit, well done Max you got three of the fuckers.” 

 

She turned back to the brunette to see her lowering her gun, the same impassive look on her face. Chloe stood up and patted her friend on the back for a job well done. This, however, made the smaller girl slump forward and sink to her knees. She then proceeded to vomit everything she had in her. 

 

This distracted them from the tentacle of silvery purple light that snaked out and struck one of their comrades in arms. 

 

 


End file.
